Village loses bank

by Joanne Clague

The Isle of Man Bank is closing its Laxey branch permanently from today.It's a blow for the village but the local authority says it accepts the bank had no other option.Laxey Commissioners' chairman Andrew Moore said: 'We are obviously terribly sad that this has happened but they did not have any choice. You use it or lose it.'There's uncertainty over the future of the building, which the bank owns. Laxey Commissioners would like to see the Isle of Man Bank operate a counter service at the local Post Office.Mr Moore said: 'At our Post Office we have HSBC, Santander and Barclays. There's no reason why the Isle of Man Bank should not be there and we have asked them to consider transferring their counter services to the Post Office.'The Isle of Man Bank says there will be no redundancies as a result of the closure. The Laxey branch employs two members of staff.